Grendel

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Grendel: A Tale of Remorse
By Stephanie Heinz and Ryan Flynn
General Information -
  • Author - John Gardner
  • Style - Parallel novel, a retelling of the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf
  • Tone - Grendel, as the narrator, sets the tone by veiwing the humans with disdain and content, making the novel satirical in nature
  • Purpose - Gardner's purpose in writing this novel is to delve deeper into the antagonists of the epic poem Beowulf. Through Grendel he is able to show the pain of isolation and the many levels to the classifications of Good and Evil. Through the Shaper and his stories Gardner also shows the power of stories and how they influence both people and history, changing it with the teller's whim.
Characters -
  • Grendel - Is turned from evil one-note villain to sympathetic anti-hero in the transition from Beowulf to Grendel; isolated and alone, conflicted with negative and self-depricating emotions; made into a deep thinker as opposed to a mindless beast
  • Beowulf - despite only appearing in the last couple of chapters, Beowulf is very different in Grendel than his own self-titled epic; he is viewed by Grendel as an emotionless zombie, instead of a noble hero; viewed as much crueler

Zodiac Symbolism -

Each chapter is divided by a certain astrological sign, and the symoblic animal that represents said zodiac is somehow incorporated into the novel whether through literary terms/rhetorical devices, or as actual characters:
  • Chapter One - Aries, the Ram
    • Act before thinking, bravery, lead with immediate readiness, organized
    • "The old ram stands looking down over rockslides, stupidly triumphant" (5).
  • Chapter Two - Taurus, the Bull grendel.jpg
    • Placid, calm, contented; contrastly, also stubborn
    • "Then some thirty feet away, there was a bull. He stood looking at me with his head lowered, and the world snapped into position around him, as if in league with him" (19).
  • Chapter Three - Gemini, the Twins
    • Versatile, superficial, inventive, quick-witted
    • "It was late spring. Every sheep and goat had its wobbly twins."
  • Chapter Four - Cancer, the Crab
    • Creative, sensitive, close to their family, moody
    • “I backed away, crablike, further into darkness- like a crab retreating in pain when you strike two stones at the mouth of his underwater den” (48).
  • Chapter Five - Leo, the Lion
    • Warm, radiant, cheerful
    • “No use of a growl, a whoop, a roar, in the presence of that beast” (57).
  • Chapter Six - Virgo, the Virgin
    • One who studies, common sense
    • “The shaper talked of how God had vanquished their enemies and filled up their houses with precious treasure, how they were the richest, most powerful on earth, how here and here alone in all the world men were free and heroes were brave and virgins were virgins” (77).
  • Chapter Seven - Libra, the Scales
    • Serene, balanced, harmonious
    • "I hung balanced, a creature of two minds; and one of them said- unreasonable, stubborn as the mountains- that she was beautiful." (p. 110)
  • Chapter Eight - Scorpio, the Scorpion
    • Persistent, determined, forward-minded
    • "And so- I watch in glee- they take in Hrothulf; quiet as the moon, sweet scorpion, he sits between their two and cleans his knife." (p. 113)
  • Chapter Nine - Sagittarius, the Archer
    • Free and adventurous, enthusiastic, open-minded
    • "I watch one of Hrothgar’s bowmen pursue a hart... They face each other, unmoving as numbers on a stick. And the, incredibly, through the pale, strange light the man’s hand moves... and returns with an arrow, threads the bow." (p. 126)
  • Chapter Ten - Capricorn, the Sea-Goat
    • Practical, realistic, pessimesstic
    • "I watch a great horned goat ascend the rocks toward my mere... I am suddenly annoyed, no longer amused by his stupidity... before his balance is sure my second stone hits him and falls again... I snatch up a stone and hurl it... He climbs toward me. I snatch up a stone. " (p. 139-140)
  • Chapter Eleven - Aquarius, the Water Bearer
    • Impersonal, evasive, aloof
    • "I was unnaturally conscious, for some reason, of the sounds in the cave; the roar of the underground river hundreds of feet below our rooms, reaming out walls, driving deeper and deeper; the centuries-old drip-drip of seepage building stalagmites, an inch in a hundred years; the spatter of the spring three rooms away- the room of the pictures half buried in stone- where the spring breaks through the roof." (p. 156)
  • Chapter Twelve - Pisces, the Fish
    • Intuitive, not easily decieved, creative
    • "As you see it it is, while the seeing lasts, dark nightmare-history, time-as-coffin; but where the water was rigid there will be fish, and men will survive on their flesh till spring." (P. 170)